Actually, I agree with your general premise. The dream King spoke about doesn't exist within a lot of alleged American culture. More black men and women have degrees, but at the same time still get treated differently when gaining employment. Formerly poor minority neighborhoods have seen improvements in select cities across the country, only to have those minority residents displaced. There are more minority people in media but only portrayed in a certain manner. You can say its great hip-hop & rap are mainstream only the popular ones are glorifying negative aspects of life. We know kids are smoking weed but it seems like law enforcement has preference for enforcing the law on minority youths. It appears that for every supposed progress we've made, there is an opposite action that also seems to negate that gain somewhat. One can't say it is a net-zero effect as a good portion of American youth born post-1985 seem to actually live that dream. However, it is fair to say that those youths definitely have very little presence in American culture at large. We also agree on another point. Western society, from my point of view, is completely lacking in actual self-responsibility. Every ill is the fault of an institution or another person, but never from your lack of personal participation or decisions. My favorite example is how can the government be terrible when we are supposedly the ones electing these individuals? How is it not our personal failure to actively participate in the political sphere with our own minds and thought? How are we not to blame for swallowing the readily available option? So on and so forth.
This is an interesting one, because there has been a weird division in black and white television in the last couple decades. It used to be that whites watched The Cosby Show, and Good Times, and The Jeffersons, etc, and blacks watched All in the Family, Cheers, and Three's Company. But nowadays how many whites do you know that watch The Hugleys or that Daman Wayans show that I don't even know the name of (or, like, any of the 50 Tyler Perry movies that come out each year)? And Seinfeld was barely watched among blacks. It's totally bizarre that our cultures have gotten more separate in terms of the media we consume.There are more minority people in media but only portrayed in a certain manner.
Is it? Marketing and advertising seeks to sell as much product as it can, but not all products are inherently appealing to all people. Furthermore, marketing and advertising seeks to develop groups in such a way that a lot of product can be sold. If the TV viewing public are all watching one show, then that's a problem for other networks, who are also in the business of providing entertainment. It's also a problem for that network's sponsors, who run commercials they've crafted to appeal to the demographic watching the show at that time slot. However, it's easier to appeal to a niche market than it is to the public at large. Thus, we have a million channels and a million different things being sold on those channels. Of course, this is a gross oversimplification, but I definitely think that advertising and marketing has played a role in how people consume media and how media demographics are conceived of.It's totally bizarre that our cultures have gotten more separate in terms of the media we consume.